REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 219 



FA^RM STOCK. 



The Horn-fly (ffcernatobia serrata, Rob.-Desv.). — In the provinces of Ontario 

 and Quebec the Horn-fly was reported as being slightly more troublesome than last year. 

 This was also the case in some places in Nova Scotia, but at most places the annoyance 

 was less. In Prince Edward Island, where this year it was expected to give more 

 trouble than elsewhere, Father Eurke writes from Alberton, P.E.I. : " The Horn-fly 

 was not so bad early in the season as in other years, as the wet weather was fatal to the 

 larvae, but later it was a troublesome pest and, I feel sure, was as numerous as in its first 

 years here. People did not oil so systematically or persistently, and this may have been 

 the cause. I do not think that any effort is being made to disturb the cattle droppings 

 in the fields where the flies breed." 



Remedies. — These consist of applying to the animals some oily substance obnoxious 

 to the flies to prevent them from biting. Of many kinds tried, Mr. Robert Elliot, the 

 Herdsman at the Central Experimental Farm, has for 2 or 3 years used when necessary 

 a mixture of 1 pound of pine tar in 10 pounds of lard, and still finds it the most 

 convenient and efiiective remedy. 



Regularly spreading out the fresh cattle droppings in the field with a rake, so that 

 they dry up and become unfit for the maggots to breed in, has been found an easy and 

 useful remedy. The eggs are laid by the flies at once on fresh droppings, and if these 

 are disturbed every other day in the favourite places in pastures where the cattle congre- 

 gate, large numbers of the larvse are destroyed. 



